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The main character is Ivica Kičmanović, the son of the peasant Jožica, a jovial man who was called "Zgubidan" by the villagers because of playing in the village "orchestra". Their closest neighbor, the stocky "Canon", had a daughter, Anica, and sons, Per and Miha, and as Jožiča's children were brighter, envy and rivalry developed. Ivica finished elementary school with flying colors and continued his education with the help of Maecenas, living in the house of his benefactor, with his "commander" Žorž. Mecena is a bachelor, rich, with a hazy past: he has on his soul the lives of several people whose deaths he indirectly concealed after he dishonored the beautiful villager Dora. When Ivica turned nineteen, Laura, his cousin, a girl with a strange past and an even stranger future, moved in with Mecena. However, Ivica finds out that she is Mecena's lover, so he gets involved with her, which is why Mecena drives him out of his castle. Ivica returns home, where he is once again greeted by the envy of the family of his neighbor "Kanonika", whose son Miha enriched him with a rich marriage. In the meantime, Mecen was poisoned and robbed by Laura, who later found out from a letter that he was actually her father, and the crazy Dora, dishonored long ago, was her mother. Laura looks for Ivica and helps Jožica build a new house. The villagers gossiped about them because of their wild marriage, but Laura will not lose her freedom, so she prefers to send Ivica back to finish her education, and she herself continues to live with Miho, until his wife Justa dies in inexplicable circumstances, with the assistance of Laura. Ivica realizes that Laura is a criminal and wants to marry the "Canon's" daughter Anica, for whom he finds service with a lady, where he himself worked as an instructor. Laura, in agreement with her new lover Ferkonja, also drowns Miha, steals Miha's money and runs away, but kills Ferkonja as well when dividing the loot. The swindler Laura still wants to win back Ivica, and when he refuses, she breaks into his wedding party with bandits and kills them in turn: Ivica's mother, father Jožica, "Canon", kidnaps Anica and mutilates her in the forest by cutting off her breasts. Ivica survived the massacre, so the wounded man testifies in court against Laura, who is finally shot. Not a drop of blood drips from her chest. Ivica goes to bed, becomes a binder, but soon goes crazy, sets fire to all the files and burns himself in that fire.